Today I found myself, not for the first time, arguing with a friend whether the U.S. under Bush was “sincere” in its desire to bring democracy to the Middle East. I went back to an April 2003 article by Josh Marshall, in which he lays out the grand vision neoconservatives had at the time, improbable as it was, in the first days of the war in Iraq.

The February 2011 revolutionaries found themselves in the unenviable position of having achieved a key demand — free and fair elections — which nevertheless set Egypt on a course that was in direct conflict with the rest of their demands — namely for an open, inclusive, and participatory society based on human dignity and social reform.